Teach English Abroad: Samantha Sundermann’s Story

Samantha Sundermann completed her training at XploreAsia and spent 6 months teaching in Myanmar before returning to Canada. Despite returning home, she was able to use the connections she made whilst being an XploreAsia teacher to continue to help children in Myanmar get access to a higher level of education. Read about her unique experiences in her blog post below:

Samantha with her TESOL class receiving her teaching certificate at XploreAsia

After several years of traveling for work and constantly being on the move, I finally decided it was time to stay in one place for a while. When deciding what I wanted to do for career, I thought back to what has always sparked my curiosity. Teaching English abroad is something that I have always been interested in, and now was the time to give it a shot.

In 2015, I went home, saved up some money and did some research on how to teach English abroad. Through my research, I found XploreAsia and signed up for my TESOL course. After being granted my certificate, I went on and taught in Tachileik in Myanmar for 6 months. It was an incredible experience that I wish could have lasted longer but unfortunately, I had to get back to Canada for work.

In Toronto, I have been working for Shine Dance Competitions for the last 5 years. Shine, is a company that hosts and organizes children’s dance competitions in Southern Ontario and Quebec. Shine is a great company that lets me travel during off seasons to have new experiences (such as teaching English abroad) and then come back to Toronto when the dance season begins. For several years, Shine was planning to offer underprivileged kids an opportunity to access a higher education through online learning. I was absolutely thrilled when they asked me to take charge of this project and I already had my first location in mind!

Assistant teachers with our class in Tachileik, celebrating their last day of Nursery 1

Tachileik is a small but fast paced town in the north of Myanmar with lots of stories to tell. One of the most loving places in town is a small orphanage. Some of the teachers who were teaching before me would go on the weekends and teach the kids English. They invited me along one weekend and I was absolutely moved by the experience. It was my first-time meeting kids in an orphanage and experiencing their way of life. We arrived while the kids were in the middle of mass. Hearing their voices in song was beautiful. They saw us come in and knew it meant it was time for their English lesson. They quickly finished mass and were ready to be taught. Their enthusiasm was infectious. They laughed and shouted throughout the lesson on animals. It was so inspiring to see a young generation so eager to learn. Although, I didn’t make it back to the orphanage as often as I would have liked, I was motivated to bring Shines’ project to these kids.

I contacted my friends in Myanmar who were equally as excited by this project. They instantly started researching how to get internet to the orphanage. Our company, Shine Dance Competitions, in partnership with Response I.T., arranged to provide all the computer equipment for the project, among other things, and I started researching how to get the computers to the orphanage. After months of researching different methods to send the computers to Myanmar, I reached out to Mike (XploreAsia’s Managing Director) for help. With some luck, Mike happened to know the easiest route to get computers to Yangon. From Yangon they were then sent on a bus to Tachileik. We are so grateful for the team of people who helped get this project off the ground.

Mass at the Orphanage

Orphans during class time

Currently, the orphanage has internet access and 2 teachers who go on the weekends to teach the kids how to use the computers. For now, the kids are using websites to improve their English. As the children become more proficient, we will start talking to them about what other topics they are interested in learning. One of the teachers at the orphanage is a native English speaker, and the other is a native Myanmar speaker. This is convenient because when the kids don’t understand the programs on the computer, they can ask in their native language but still have an opportunity to speak English as well. Through many education oriented websites, the kids can learn anything they want. In countries such as Thailand, where these websites are offered in the primary language, the children can start taking any courses they want. However, due to there being less options in Burmese, we encourage the improvement of their English language skills to give them more choices in what they want to learn online. Learning English will also help to create more career opportunities for them in the future.

The goal for this project is to let the kids learn new skills to help their community. They can learn anything from Tree Planting, to Rocket Science. We want to encourage these kids to enjoy learning and improve their current living situations. Currently, we are looking to expand the project within South East Asia, targeting a few different countries. Once we have a few solid facilities, we will begin to expand in each country where our project has proved successful.

First time students see computer set up

Students on the bus home from school in Tachileik

At the moment, we are building a website to promote this project. When we acquire sponsors, we can grow at a quicker rate. Additionally, we also need to find contacts in different countries who can supervise the project for us and who also want to teach English abroad. We will be posting blog updates about how the projects are running and eventually we would like to have the kid’s blogging about their own experiences!

I am very grateful for the opportunity XploreAsia gave me to meet new people and teach English abroad. I am excited to continue working with Shine to expand this wonderful project. We are now working with XploreAsia to set up computers for the kids at the Pala-U Orphanage, in Thailand. I cannot wait to see what is to come! For more information please contact me at: sam@shinedance.com